Developing a novel welfare assessment tool for loose-housed laying hens - the Aviary Transect method

Area of Science:

• Animal Welfare Science
• Poultry Science
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Assessing welfare in commercial layer flocks is crucial for ethical and productive farming.
• Existing methods like AssureWel and NorWel have limitations in multitiered aviary systems.
• A novel, efficient, and sensitive assessment method is needed for whole-flock evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of a novel Aviary Transect method against AssureWel and NorWel for welfare assessment in multitiered aviaries.
• To evaluate the time requirement, interobserver reliability, and sensitivity of the Aviary Transect method.
• To identify differences in welfare indicator prevalence across commercial layer flocks.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 6 commercial white-strain layer flocks in multitiered aviaries.
• Three welfare assessment methods were compared: Aviary Transect, AssureWel, and NorWel.
• Key welfare indicators evaluated included feather loss, wounds, dirty birds, enlarged crop, sick birds, and dead birds.

Main Results:

• All three methods detected significant differences in welfare indicator prevalence between flocks.
• The Aviary Transect method demonstrated high sensitivity for detecting feather loss and enlarged crops.
• Good interobserver agreement was found for the Aviary Transect method, with similar time requirements to other methods.

Conclusions:

• The novel Aviary Transect method is an efficient and sensitive tool for whole-flock welfare assessment in multitiered aviaries.
• All evaluated methods successfully identified variations in hen welfare indicators.
• The findings support the adoption of the Aviary Transect method for improved egg producer insights into hen welfare.